


luckily for you i was nearby

by Fredwrites



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Ending, Canon Compliant, Gen, I MEAN TECHNICALLY, after like 3 years, i need to write a proper johnchurch fic, the relationships kinda vague but its there
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-24
Updated: 2017-08-24
Packaged: 2018-12-19 12:08:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11897433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fredwrites/pseuds/Fredwrites
Summary: after a long time of nowhere, john finds himself on a beach and sees a familiar face





	luckily for you i was nearby

**Author's Note:**

> this was a request from my taz tumblr, @l-u-p , go there and send me suggestions for writing and stuff  
> i need to write more johnchurch tbqh

John woke up on a beach. Of all the places he could've been dumped, it was here. Fate was a cruel god, but he could hardly blame her for her decisions-after all, John was the cause of this mess. He held his head in his hand. It pounded; felt like someone had cranked up the bass in his brain. Sand stuck to his clothes, which were soaked in seawater. The sensation of wet fabric clinging to his skin was distinctly unpleasant. 

He rolled over and stared at the sky-vast and so _blue_. He shaded his eyes with his palm, grimacing. He felt the intense desire to squirrel himself away into a dark hole and to never come back out. John came to the realization that he had no clue where he was. He sat up, slowly, his joints creaking (he had to remember that aging actually meant something now) and glanced around. 

Everything after sitting with Merle for one last time was hazy. There was darkness, and chaos, and then a lot of light and nothingness...and then here he was. What he expected was to be somewhere in the astral plain by now, but if he was, he reckoned he'd be feeling a lot less pain. 

The people around him were enjoying themselves. They laughed, joked, played on the shore and swam in the ocean. John couldn't remember doing any of that-even back in his own plane. A dragonborn woman walked up to him, holding an egg in one arm. She was frowning. "Hey, are you...ok? You just washed up here. I thought you were dead for a second!"

Coughing, John propped himself up on his elbows. "Can you...tell me where I am?" he croaked. 

"This is Bottlenose Cove! Run by a good friend o'mine." She nodded toward a guild hall nearby, set on a grassy bank. "I'm gonna send my kid there once they finally hatch!" She laughed. 

John squinted at the building. A warm light glowed from the windows within. Beautiful flowers in a multide of colours grew in flowerbeds that lined the windows, accomponied by twining vines and hanging baskets. There was a sign situated above the door. 

"Merle's Extreme Teen Adventures."

Every sound around John was muted. He felt dizzy. The dragonborn woman was staring sideways at him. "Dude, do you need a cleric or something? I mean, there's one right around here." She leant a little closer, and her mouth dropped open. "Wait-wait a minute! You're...you're that motherfucker that almost killed all of us!" The dragonborn darted away, clutching her egg close to her chest. "Hey, Killian, get over here! We've got someone to deal with."

People surrounding them had begun to notice the commotion. An orc woman- Killian, John presumed- was striding over, her eyes narrowed. John's heart started to flutter in his chest as he felt dozens of eyes burning holes in his skin. Eyes. Why was there always, always something watching him?

A bell jingled somewhere in the distance, heralding the exit of a man from the bar. He was short, covered in flowers, and had an aura about him that made everyone turn to stare. 

Merle. 

"Hey now, guys! What's all the commotion abou..." Merle's eyes stopped on the figure lying at the centre of the scene. He took his glasses off and rubbed them on his shirt. Once he put them back on, he shook his head, as if that would right what he was seeing. 

"John...John, what're you...how did you _get_ here?"

John stumbled to his feet. "I-I don't know, one minute I'm floating around in the ether and the next I'm washed up on a beach." He looked from the sand to Merle. "It's...good to see you again, old friend."

"Yeah, it's been a while, hasn't it? Pan, I didn't...think you'd come back. I missed you, man."

Murmurings started up in the crowd around them. Merle turned to face it, and held out his hands. "Hey, hey now, guys! I know we all have some, ah...predispositions about ol' John here, but just let it be known that he's a good friend of mine. Even though he almost...ate the whole world and whatever, he's a decent guy deep down! What say we go get some drinks and get to know him better, huh?"

Unanimously, the crowd hummed and ah-ed in agreement, and set off toward the bar, Merle leading the way, his arm slung around John's waist. "Hey, lucky I was nearby, huh? You coulda been torn to shreds!" He winked at John, who could only muster a smile back. 

\---  
The sun was setting, casting an orange wash across the inside of the bar. Merle tilted his head back as he finished a margharita. John swilled the dregs of his wine around his glass. After hours of exhausting conversation, and answering questions that even he didn't have a response for. 

"What a crazy day, huh?" Merle said, sighing and leaning back in his chair. "I mean...look, I thought you were dead."

"So did I." 

Merle wiped his face with his hand. "I'm really glad you're not. Like...really glad."

John looked toward him. 

"I just...kept thinking about, like...what if you died, or worse, and you never got any kind of closure? It...gave me a lot of sleepless nights."

"I mean that much to you?"

Merle looked up from his drink and blinked a little. If John didn't know any better, he'd say that Merle's cheeks had gone pink. He cleared his throat. "I mean, ya...there's history between us, bud, and no matter how much time passes, we can't erase that."

Someone cared about him. After everything that had happened. John smiled softly. "How long has it been? Since we last saw each other?"

Merle whistled. "Oof, about...three years, I'd say. Three years today, in fact! Geez, kinda timely, huh?"

John shrugged. "We've been apart longer." 

"Still, a lot's happened in three years. How about we catch up? Hey bartender!" The elf polishing glasses looked up. "Another round of drinks, on me!"

John could get used to this.


End file.
